Art dealer gets rich lifeline

Don’t count out Jeffrey Deitch just yet. It looked like the former New York art dealer’s days as the director of the cash-poor Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles might be numbered when the rival Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) recently proposed a merger. But two of Deitch’s biggest supporters stepped forward yesterday with $40 million. Jeffrey Soros, a nephew of hedge- fund billionaire George Soros, and Eugenio Lopez, the heir to Mexico’s Jumex fruit-juice giant, pledged to triple MOCA’s endowment to $60 million. Asked if the move was basically telling LACMA to take their merger offer and shove it, Deitch told The Post’s Los Angeles correspondent Richard Johnson: “The option is still open, but the MOCA trustees are committed to trying to stay independent.”